When you are starting a business, branding is super important. It’s not only your logo and design elements, but also how you communicate with customers and other stakeholders. A well-developed brand can do wonders to help build trust, credibility and recognition. That said, rebranding can be expensive and time-consuming. That’s why it’s important to get your branding right the first time to avoid costly mistakes that could set back your business in the long run. In this blog post, we will discuss what goes into the cost of rebranding and why it pays to get it right from the beginning.
What Goes Into Rebranding?
Rebranding typically involves more than just changing up a logo or website design; there is usually a great deal of strategy involved as well. To begin with, there is often an extensive research process that goes into understanding who your target audience is and how they perceive your brand. This helps to inform the messaging used throughout all of your branding efforts. During this process, you may decide to revise your mission statement or company values so that they are better aligned with who you are today as opposed to when you first started out.
Once the research has been done, then comes all of the creative work such as designing a new logo or website and developing content for social media campaigns. This creative work can be very expensive depending on who you hire to do it and how many elements need updating (e.g., logos, website designs, etc.).
Additionally, if you have already established yourself in certain markets or areas then there may need to be additional outreach made so that people understand what has changed about your brand (i.e., new look/logo/website). This can add significantly to the cost of rebranding as well since it requires resources such as advertising costs or public relations professionals working behind-the-scenes on outreach campaigns.
The Benefits of Getting Branding Right From The Start
The cost of rebranding can add up quickly—especially if there are multiple elements involved—so it pays off in the long run to get things right from the start rather than having to go back and redo everything later down the line due to missteps early on in development. Doing things correctly from the beginning ensures that all aspects of branding remain consistent across platforms which helps build trust with customers over time while also making sure that any changes made are meaningful rather than merely superficial surface fixes that won't have any real impact on customer engagement or perception of your brand overall.
Rebranding can be an expensive endeavor but if done correctly from day one then it will pay off in spades down the line as customers become more familiar with your updated look/messaging/etc.. Additionally, getting branding right from the start ensures consistency across platforms which makes for a much smoother transition whenever changes occur within a business (e.g. name change, mission statement revision etc.). All in all investing in getting things “right” from day one is worth its weight gold when it comes time for rebranding!
If you're a new business owner who is trying to build their brand, here are some simple steps that will help you get it right the first time:
Do intensive research on both your target audience and your competitors
Define your focus and personality
Choose your business name carefully
Come up with a slogan that is simple and catchy
Choose the look of your brand carefully (colors and font)
Hire a designer to help you create a logo and website instead of just getting them from generic sites or creating them on your own
Apply your branding across your business!
If, on the other hand, you're a business owner who is looking to re-brand their business because it didn't go so well the first time, here are some tips that can help you this time around:
Determine your current identity and decide what your new identity will be
Audit changes to be made
Do more research on your consumers and make sure you know and understand them to the last detail
Turn your employees, and more importantly, yourself, into brand ambassadors
Initiate changes and communicate your new identity
Your brand is your most important marketing asset and it needs to be handled with care. With our extensive knowledge and expertise, we can help you build or re-brand your business successfully. We have been through the process ourselves and we know what it takes to create a strong and lasting brand identity. If you are interested in branding/re-branding, call us today and let us show you what we can do!
Check out our blogs Why We Decided to Rebrand...Should You? and What is Brand Strategy? to learn more on this topic.
Kimberly Norris | Norrisdc.com | Kimberly@norrisdc.com
